also 7–9 ba(e. [Formed in imitation of a sheep’s or lamb’s bleat; cf. Norm.F. bai, Cat. be, sheep.] To bleat.

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a. 1586.  Sidney, Arcadia, I. (1593), 49 (J.).

        Or like a lambe whose dam away is fet,
(Stolne from her yoong by theeues vnchoosing hast)
He treble beas for helpe, but none can get.

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1607.  Shaks., Cor., II. i. 12. He’s a Lambe indeed, that baes like a Beare.

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1765.  C. Smart, Phædrus (Bohn), III. xiv. 506. You little fool, why, how you baa! This goat is not your own mamma.

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1877.  A. B. Edwards, Up Nile, vi. 138. Our sacrificial sheep … comes baaing in the rear.

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